Chapter 23
Strong waves of power woke Ehlian from his dream, settling over his skin in layers of heat and cold, the sensations bleeding strangely into one another.
He opened his eyes to a slit, a blurred figure looming in his vision. Blinking sluggishly, the room came back into focus.
Hands buried deep in his pockets, Hayce stood by the bed, his dark eyes fixed on him. “You’re really something, Ehlian.”
His mind snapping back into gear, Ehlian sat up, raking a hand awkwardly through his hair. He met Hayce’s gaze, then immediately looked away. Everything he’d rehearsed last night was gone. His head was empty. Now it was fucking empty.
And yet he couldn’t stop taking in Hayce, how the grey suit framed every line of him perfectly. The black holowatch curling around his wrist looked custom-made, tailored for him alone. Fuck, he looked impossibly good.
Clearing his throat, Ehlian reached for the Vair box, fidgeting with it between his fingers. “Your sister came to see me. She gave me this.”
Hayce drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, but said nothing.
Suddenly Ehlian faltered, questioning if Calia had been right. It was clear Hayce didn’t want him here.
Ehlian set the box down on the blanket. “I don’t like it.”
“All for the best,” Hayce said at last. “You can sell it easily enough.”
“That won’t be enough,” Ehlian met his eyes. “I want something else. Something more valuable.”
Hayce’s expression closed off even further. “How much do you want?”
Ehlian swallowed thickly and shifted closer to the edge of the bed. He drew Hayce’s hand from his pocket and wove their fingers together. “Everything.”
Hayce’s mask shifted, letting through the familiar warmth Ehlian had missed, but it hadn’t shattered completely yet.
Damn, he wasn’t easy to crack. Ehlian suspected that for all the indifference Hayce tried to show, somewhere deep down it wounded his pride that Ehlian had put him well below someone like Grasson.
“Don’t be like this, Hayce. You’re not being fair,” Ehlian sighed.
“You can’t possibly believe I meant what I said.
You know it wasn’t true. But try to understand me as well.
You parade around with your stupid omegas, you treat me like I didn’t exist, and then you turn up and expect me to run back to you like nothing happened. What was I supposed to think?”
Hayce said nothing, his eyes raking over Ehlian’s tousled hair.
“And you could have come to me again to make me understand,” Ehlian added. “Instead, I had to hear everything from your sister.”
Hayce still didn’t say a word, his gaze drawing a hot line along the curve of Ehlian’s neck.
Ehlian shifted on the bed, a strange mixture of heat and disappointment flooding him.
The conflicting signals Hayce was sending were both encouraging and disheartening, leaving Ehlian utterly confused.
When the silence stretched and Hayce still didn’t say a single word, Ehlian started to untangle their entwined fingers—Hayce’s grip tightened, not letting him go.
“I did go to see you,” Hayce said at last. “But you weren’t home.”
Something soft unfurled in Ehlian’s chest.
“I went to your friend’s shop too,” Hayce continued. “It was closed.”
Ehlian stayed still, holding his breath.
“I get home,” the ember flecks in Hayce’s eyes started glowing with staggering intensity, “and I find you sleeping in my bed instead.”
Ehlian swallowed. He rose to his knees and scooted even closer, pressing his forehead against Hayce’s chest. “I know what I said wasn’t fair, and I can show you I didn’t mean it, but you have to give me a chance. Don’t you want to give this a fresh start?”
Silence settled over the room for a painfully long second before Ehlian felt Hayce’s fingers comb gently through his hair, so different from the first time he had sunk his hand into Ehlian’s hair in the prison cell.
“That was my intention when I went to your flat,” Hayce said. “Both times.”
Ehlian felt the tension finally ease from his shoulders, and he let out a soft breath.
“Broke into my flat,” he corrected.
“I didn’t break—” Hayce sighed. “Fine. I broke into your flat.”
Ehlian smiled under his breath, then straightened, putting on a serious mask. “And you can be an absolute dickhead too.”
The corner of Hayce’s mouth curled, almost a smile. “I know.”
“Don’t you dare be proud of that,” Ehlian huffed.
“I’m still angry about the breakup. That was especially cruel.
And for keeping me in the dark for so long without a single message—Hayce, not one message—to make me understand.
And for those stupid balls and your stupid omegas.
” He paused. “I’m angry. A bit. Even if I know now why you did it. ”
Hayce untangled their fingers and slipped a hand to the small of Ehlian’s back, the other threading into his hair as he pulled him in and brushed a soft kiss against his lips. “I know.”
“Good,” Ehlian whispered. “It’s good that you know, because you have to show me too.”
This time, he was the one to lean in. The kiss sealed their new deal, lips meeting with a quiet promise.
When their tongues brushed softly, Ehlian melted against Hayce.
It felt like he was feeling him for the first time.
No walls, no rules, no hierarchy. Just them, with a new beginning.
The prison had only laid the foundation of whatever they were becoming.
Hayce knelt between Ehlian’s legs, bending him backwards until his back met the blanket. Shoes thudded to the floor, and then Hayce was there with him, leaning over, peppering kisses over his bond point.
“Did you see him again?”
Ehlian frowned. “Who?”
Grabbing the hem of Ehlian’s shirt, Hayce pulled it over his head and tossed it aside. “Your soft alpha.”
“Not since that night.”
“Good.” He unbuckled Ehlian’s trousers and eased them down his legs. “You’ll break up with him.”
“Hayce, we went on three dates,” Ehlian said, kicking away the trousers once they were off. “We aren’t in a relationship.”
Hayce’s mouth closed over his bond point again—less gentle this time, claiming, marking him with his power. The fine waves rippled through the sensitive skin, sparking low in Ehlian’s core.
“You tell him.” Hayce demanded.
“Okay,” Ehlian whispered, his voice hitching. “I’ll tell him.”
They kissed deeply, quiet sighs and the sound of lips meeting filling the air, despite the urgency coiling in Ehlian’s groin, throbbing between his legs. It had been so long.
“Missed you,” Hayce whispered against Ehlian’s chest after breaking the kiss, his lips travelling lower. The words seared into Ehlian’s skin, melting away the last remnants of his anger.
Ehlian let out a quiet laugh when Hayce reached the sensitive, ticklish spot on his belly.
“Missed you too,” Hayce teased.
“Leave it alone,” Ehlian said, his voice laced with a smile.
Hayce pressed another lingering kiss over the spot. “Never,” he murmured.
The smile slipped from Ehlian’s face when Hayce’s fingers tightened around the waistband of his underwear and slowly tugged it down over the curve of his cheeks, sliding it lower across his thighs.
Ehlian lifted his ankles just enough for Hayce to pull the garment free and toss it aside.
Crossing Ehlian’s wrists, Hayce placed them over his head. “Keep them there.”
Ehlian barley had a chance to nod, a quiet sound catching in his throat when Hayce spread his legs and pushed them towards his chest. His hands skimmed over Ehlian’s round cheeks, parting them with his thumbs.
For a moment everything was still—then the flat of Hayce’s tongue dragged across his entrance.
A soft and helpless moan broke free as Hayce circled the tight muscles, jolting every dormant nerve ending awake.
Ehlian had missed this, the way Hayce spoiled him with pleasure.
Back then, it used to warm the cell, letting him forget the grimness of prison for a while…
sometimes even that he was in one at all.
He gasped when Hayce’s tongue pressed inside, the thrusts slow, measured. Ehlian pushed back against him, urging him to go faster, but it was no use. The pace stayed languid, unhurried, soft sucks and teasing licks igniting his nerves with just enough pressure, but never quite enough.
Unable to bear it, Ehlian reached down—
“Keep your hands there.” Hayce’s warning came low, lips brushing hot over his slick entrance before resuming their steady strokes. Ehlian’s body shivered under the order and every deliberate touch, his legs spreading wider on instinct, surrendering to Hayce’s control.
His chest heaved uncontrollably by the time Hayce’s lips tore away from his hole, placing one last kiss on his trembling thigh.
Hayce still looked impossibly composed, his hair perfect and suit immaculate. Only the deep rise and fall of his chest betrayed him.
He began shrugging off his suit jacket—
“Leave it on,” Ehlian whispered.
Hayce froze mid-movement, then let the jacket fall back into place across his shoulders.
Spreading his feet wider on the bed, Ehlian gazed up at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Are you really going to hold yourself back?”
Hayce exhaled long and low, maybe an attempt to steady himself, though it failed. The sound was ragged, his breathing laboured as he leaned over Ehlian, the open jacket brushing his sides, wrapping him in its shadow.
“I’m here now.” Ehlian’s hands slid up to his neck, curling around the nape. He pressed a soft kiss to Hayce’s lips. “You can have me.”
Hayce crushed his mouth to Ehlian’s, the delicious, burning ache made Ehlian feel alive. The kiss was raw and hungry, breaths and low moans tangling as they pulled and tugged and licked at each other’s mouths.
“You can have me,” Ehlian repeated mindlessly in the short, breathless pauses, unable to tear himself away. “Have me—”
“Finding you sleeping in my bed,” Hayce growled, tearing free only to trail down to Ehlian’s neck and latch harshly onto his bond point again. “You always knew how to drive me insane.”
Ehlian’s back arched, the thin, sensitive skin sparking with pleasure.
A response hovered on his tongue but tore out of him as a broken gasp, swallowed again when Hayce claimed his mouth in a deeper kiss, fingertips sinking bruisingly into Ehlian’s hips, dragging him closer and erasing every inch of space.
As if Hayce were still in that prison cell, with Ehlian gone, unreachable.
Ehlian doubted he’d ever met an alpha who wanted him this much.
It was addictive, breathtaking to be wanted this much.
Hayce’s hand fumbled lower, yanking at his fly with hurried tugs, not even bothering to shove his trousers fully down. The moment the blunt head of his cock pressed to Ehlian’s entrance, Ehlian whined into their kiss, hips pushing down in desperate urgency. He couldn’t have him inside soon enough.
When Hayce finally slipped inside him, their kiss broke into groans, lips brushing only in fragments as Hayce set a merciless pace, knocking the air out of Ehlian. The bed cried under the relentless thrusts, Hayce’s shirt crumpling in Ehlian’s desperate grip.
“Yeah, like that,” Ehlian gasped. “Like that…”
He had missed this. He missed Hayce being inside him, missed the way his power coiled around him, around his core, protective and dazzling. Hayce shifted the angle of his hips, driving deeper, striking the most sensitive, sweetest spot.
Ehlian groaned, his head falling back as his fingers twisted tightly into Hayes’s hair.
Yet it wasn’t enough. He needed more, something deeper, something… tighter.
He buried his face in Hayce’s neck and whispered, “Knot me.”
Hayce’s hips drove forward once more, then came to an abrupt halt.
Ehlian emerged from his hiding place, half-lidded eyes fixed on him. “You don’t want it?”
There was a gentle pressure against Ehlian’s mental shield, the intensity in Hayce’s hooded gaze burning through him. “Let me in.”
Ehlian tore an opening in his shield, and Hayce’s hips began moving again with quick, merciless thrusts.
A thin beam of connection formed between their cores, hot and alive, threading through him like molten light.
“Yeah…” Ehlian’s eyes rolled back. “Now… please.”
The threads of connection swirled, then tightened into a telepathic knot. Ehlian’s back arched, stars bursting behind his eyes as Hayce’s power surged through him—pure, unrestrained, holding him tight and close. Ehlian loved the feeling. The strength of an alpha, the power, the safety.
The care.
Sound vanished. His remaining willpower slipped free, and his orgasm rushed through him.
Hayce stilled too, soaking in Ehlian’s climax through the entangled knot, coming in hot waves.
He stayed buried deep inside Ehlian, their breaths mingling as they exchanged soft kisses, both of them savouring the pulse of their link humming between them.
They remained like that for a long while, until the telepathic knot began to loosen, unravelling slowly.
After what felt like forever, Hayce moved, kneeling between his legs. He grabbed the lapel of his suit jacket. “Can I take this off now?”
Ehlian nodded with a faint smile, watching in silent as Hayce peeled away his clothes, each piece landing on the carpet.
One of Ehlian’s legs moved on their own accord, curling around Hayce’s naked hip.
“Not yet satisfied?” Hayce asked, leaning over him.
Ehlian dragged his palms over Hayce’s toned chest. “Are you?”
Hayce’s only response was to flip him onto his stomach, stealing the breath from his lungs as his lips found the shadowed hollow between Ehlian’s legs once more.